Catharsis is a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great pity, sorrow, laughter, or any extreme change in emotion that results in the renewal, restoration and revitalization for living.
Catharsis is a form of emotional cleansing first defined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. It originally referred to the sensation that would ideally overcome an audience upon finishing a tragedy. The fact that there existed those who could suffer a worse fate than them was to them a relief, and at the end of the play, they felt ekstasis (literally, astonishment), of which the modern word ecstasy is derived from. While seemingly related to schadenfreude, it is not, however, in the sense that the audience is not intentionally led to feel happy in light of others' misfortunes; in an invariant sense, their spirits are refreshed through having greater appreciation for life.
The term catharsis has been adopted by modern psychotherapy to describe the act of giving expression to deep emotions often associated with events in the individuals past which have never before been adequately expressed.
Catharsis in medicine
Catharsis is a purging of the body. Typically used in connection with substances that result in the purging of the bowels, or laxatives.
Cathartics are intended to decrease the absorption of substances by accelerating the expulsion of the poison from the gastrointestinal tract.
The use of cathartics is contraindicated in the presence of absent bowel sounds, intestinal obstruction or perforation, recent bowel surgery, volume depletion by hypotension, significant electrolyte imbalance, or ingestion of a corrosive substance.
Saline cathartics and the adsorptive capacity of activated charcoal for aspirin.
In Brecht's theory, the absence of a cathartic resolving action would require the audience to take political action in the real world in order to fill the emotional gap they experience.
Thus in the neo-Platonism of Plotinus, the first step in the return of the soul to God is the act by which the soul, withdrawing from the world of sense by a process of purification (katharsis), frees itself from the trammels of matter.
In early cults, the distinction between sacred and unclean is far from complete or well defined (see Taboo); consequently we find two types of cathartic sacrifice: one to cleanse of impurity and make fit for common use, another to rid of sanctity and in like manner render suitable for human use or intercourse.
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